RoboCup Researchers Create Aibo Replacement

The Sony Aibo is very popular among robotics researchers and University
RoboCup teams. When Sony discontinued the Aibo, researchers were left
scrambling to find a replacement. Jan Wedekind wrote to let
us know the successor to the Aibo is here and sent us a pile of related
links. The new robot dog was developed by Oscar von
Stryk and others at TU Darmstadt, where an official
news release was posted recently. The Hajime Research Institute in
Japan helped with the mechanics. Gotha Design created the robot's
exterior shell. The robot is powered by a LiPo battery, weighs 2.5kg,
and has 15 joints. It includes a 500MHz Linux-based AMD Geode LX800
with LAN,
WLAN, USB, VGA, memory card interface, an LCD panel and four push
buttons. The dog also includes a 640x480
camera capable of 90 FPS. No word on pricing and availability yet.
What's the new robot dog called? For now
they're referring to it only as der neue Roboter - the new
robot.
For even more details and links on the new robot, see Jan's
blog entry.